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"Don't church clergy usually use exorcism tools like crosses?"
Blade didn't quite believe Darian.
What kind of clergyman wields dual pistols like Darian?
Especially those two Desert Eagles, which were actually made of gold.
This clergyman of yours must have taken quite a few kickbacks!
Darian chuckled and replied, "Times are advancing. Who uses traditional exorcism tools now? Our church has long since uniformly equipped itself with the most advanced thermal—thermal weapons."
"Furthermore, I borrowed the neighboring Buddhist Namo Gatling Bodhisattva. Three thousand six hundred revolutions per breath, delivering all sentient beings to the Pure Land. I believe you've already witnessed its power."
Blade: "..."
It certainly was powerful. Tens of thousands of silver bullets fired at will—he was ridiculously rich!
The two kicked open the last isolation door and truly entered the core area of the factory.
What greeted their eyes was a fully automated production line.
Hundreds of humans were vacuum-sealed in specially manufactured transparent film, lined up neatly like packaged goods in a supermarket.
Over a dozen tubes of varying thicknesses were inserted into each person. Some were responsible for supplying oxygen and life-sustaining nutrients, while others continuously drew fresh red blood from their bodies.
The drawn blood flowed through pipes into a collection system, mechanically producing blood bags, which were then sealed, labeled, and sent into the refrigeration area.
The regular buzzing of the machines intertwined with the faint moans of the humans, forming a symphony of hell.
This was practically a living human slaughterhouse!
Darian also noticed that some of the humans' machines were labeled 'Low Grade,' while others were labeled 'High Grade.' He didn't know what this meant.
The Vampire guards who had previously blocked them had been completely cleared by the two, leaving only a few white-uniformed managerial staff beside the production line.
They were huddled behind the control panel, trembling as they watched the two men approach.
Darian pulled out his watermelon knife and placed it against the neck of one of them.
"I ask, you answer. Whose territory is this?"
"It's, it's the Eternal Night Organization's."
The Eternal Night Organization. It seemed this was the Vampire faction Blade had mentioned.
Darian understood and continued his interrogation: "What do the 'High Grade' and 'Low Grade' labels on those machines mean?"
"That refers to High Grade Blood and Low Grade Blood."
The manager, held at knifepoint by the watermelon knife, spoke with a tremor.
Darian was slightly surprised: "Blood is categorized into High Grade and Low Grade?"
The manager nodded hastily: "Everyone's blood is slightly different. For healthy humans who are physically well and free of sickness, their blood tastes better and is very popular."
"Among these, the blood of virgins tastes even better and is a hot commodity on the market. Moreover, these targets are easy to acquire; they usually live alone and don't have partners, so even if they disappear, it's hard for them to be discovered in time."
Darian's mouth twitched: "What did virgins ever do to deserve this? It's bad enough they get questioned by their families every day for not having a partner, but now they risk being kidnapped by Vampires too?"
The manager continued: "As for people with poor physiques, their blood is hard to swallow and can only barely satisfy hunger. For instance, Black people—most of their blood doesn't taste good, often carrying various diseases, including HIV. Furthermore, many White Vampires dislike Black people's blood."
He suddenly fell silent halfway through, realizing that Blade's expression seemed displeased.
Blade: ( ■ ︿ ■ )
Damn it, even Vampires have racial discrimination these days?
Darian was amused: "How is this blood sold?"
"Low Grade Blood is distributed to the lower-class Vampires in various cities, concealed by the organization's legitimate businesses. High Grade Blood is exclusively supplied to the powerful, upper-class Vampires."
"Vampires still have to buy blood?" Darian asked, confused.
He recalled that when Frost was still around, Vampires hunted humans directly, never needing to purchase blood, nor did they have these industrialized blood factories.
The manager explained: "This is all because the Vampire forces in New York suffered a drastic change a while ago. The local Vampires were almost completely slaughtered. Even Frost's faction and over a dozen ancient Vampire families were wiped out, causing panic among all Vampires."
"In addition, human special departments have begun closely monitoring the Vampires' activities. Now, no Vampire dares to openly prey on humans; they can only rely on purchasing blood from us to survive."
In fact, the instigators of all this were Darian and Blade, who were standing right there.
They first killed nearly all the Vampires within New York, and then, after Nick Fury learned the news, S.H.I.E.L.D. also began paying attention to the Vampires. Any Vampire faction attempting to cause trouble would face S.H.I.E.L.D.'s merciless eradication.
Although the physical quality of Vampires far surpassed that of ordinary people, their weaknesses were simply too numerous.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s R&D department developed a series of equipment targeting Vampires in just a few days, such as UV grenades, high-intensity UV lamps, concentrated garlic extract cannons, and so on.
After being equipped with these weapons that perfectly countered Vampires, S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents found relevant missions easier to execute than dealing with ordinary humans.
Nowadays, missions involving Vampires have become highly sought after within S.H.I.E.L.D., so much so that Darian hadn't received any Vampire-related tasks until now. Had the difficulty of this mission not been relatively high, it probably wouldn't have been his turn to act.
Darian raised an eyebrow: "Is this amount of blood enough to sustain the consumption of the entire Vampire population?"
The manager whispered, "We have over a dozen similar factories in other places, distributed across different regions. This one is just one of the smaller producers. Furthermore, in some Low Grade Blood, we mix in animal blood, and even Vampire blood."
Holy crap! Mixing feces into food!?
Darian was genuinely shocked.
One must know that for other Vampires, the blood of their own kind is not only devoid of nutrition but its taste and effect are torturous, no different from excrement.
He had thought human gutter oil was already outrageous, but he didn't expect it to fall short compared to Vampires.
Profiteers truly are everywhere; even the food consumed by Vampires has food safety issues.
Darian pressed for a few more answers but gained no further valuable clues.
These grassroots managers had limited knowledge, their information restricted only to the blood factory.
Once the topic shifted to the Eternal Night Organization behind them, they knew nothing, only that the organization's influence was quite enormous within the Vampire community and was rumored to be controlled by several pure-blood Vampire Elders.
Seeing that he couldn't extract any more useful information, Darian swiftly dealt with the managers.
He turned to Blade: "What do you plan to do next?"
Blade answered without hesitation: "Destroy the remaining blood factories. We absolutely cannot let these bastards continue to harm humanity."
Although Blade was a half-human, half-Vampire hybrid, he always stood firmly on the side of humanity.
Blade never considered himself a Vampire, just someone with a tiny bit of Vampire genes mixed in his body. It was like how he still had eighty percent African ancestry in him, yet he was a pure American.
Hmm, perfectly reasonable!
Darian nodded: "That was my intention too."
He noticed that the system interface showed that the mission hadn't ended after occupying this blood factory; instead, over a dozen new mission targets had been added, clearly being the coordinates of the other blood factories.
The two immediately decided to set off and continue clearing out the other blood factories.
As for the factory they had just cleared, Darian had already contacted S.H.I.E.L.D.'s cleanup squad; they were professionals in this area.
In the following days, Darian and Blade destroyed one blood factory after another with astonishing efficiency.
Upon learning the news, the Eternal Night Organization immediately dispatched a large number of personnel to guard the remaining blood factories.
However, all of this was futile effort.
In front of Blade, the top Vampire Hunter, ordinary Vampires were simply no match.
Not to mention Darian, a cheat-level player. Unless they used powerful heavy thermal weapons, they couldn't even touch a hair on him.
Under their cooperation, the defensive lines set up by the Eternal Night Organization were breached one after another, resulting in heavy losses.
Seeing that multiple blood factories had already been destroyed, the controllers behind the Eternal Night Organization finally couldn't sit still and urgently convened a high-level meeting.
Inside the gorgeously decorated but sinister castle conference room, the atmosphere was so heavy it could almost freeze.
"Damn it! Where did these two bastards spring from?"
A tall, thin Vampire Elder suddenly stood up from his seat, slamming his withered palm heavily onto the wooden table, and roared, "I will personally tear them to shreds and hang their heads on the castle gate!"
Another Vampire Elder said, "According to the latest intelligence, one of them is the Daywalker Vampire Hunter, and the other seems to be the long-missing Vampire Killer. They have slaughtered thousands of Vampires and even killed Frost, who possessed the power of the Blood God."
The tall, thin Vampire, who had just been furious, instantly changed his expression and silently sat back down.
"I think we should take a long-term approach."
A female Vampire Elder gritted her teeth: "But we don't have much time left. They have already destroyed seven blood factories. If this continues, our blood supply will be completely cut off."
"Exactly. Right now, we are mixing small amounts of human blood into Vampire blood, and many Vampires are already complaining, saying we are feeding them shit."
"A bunch of low-class Vampires dare to complain? Tell them to drink it or leave it! We are still thriving."
"..."
The conference room immediately descended into chaos, with the Elders arguing endlessly.
"Enough!"
Just then, Damaskinos, the supreme ruler of the Eternal Night Organization, interrupted their argument.
He narrowed his scarlet eyes and said coldly, "In that case, release the Reapers. Let those monsters deal with these two troublesome fellows."
A Vampire Elder still worried: "But they managed to kill Frost, who possessed the power of the Blood God. The Reapers might not be their match."
"If it truly comes to that, then we will complete our plan ahead of schedule."
Damaskinos sneered: "The divine book in the hands of that inferior hybrid, Frost, was merely an incomplete artifact, capable of borrowing only a negligible trace of the Blood God's power."
"But we possess the complete version of the divine book, and we can even... summon the true Blood God!"
On the other side, Darian and Blade arrived at the location of the new blood factory: a bar.
Blood factories were not always located in traditional factory buildings; some strongholds were extremely secretive.
Just like this bar—on the surface, it looked like a normal entertainment venue, but in reality, it truly was a normally operating bar!
The waiters and bartenders in this bar were all unsuspecting ordinary humans, specially hired by the Vampires to serve as a cover.
If someone mistook them for Vampires or their minions and used violence or threats against them, the Vampires would help them hire lawyers, take up legal weapons, and send the attacker to jail, with the dozens of hidden cameras here serving as the best evidence in court.
Simply put, they were specifically used for 'crash-for-cash' schemes.
If possible, they would even arrange for some humans disguised as Vampires to appear in time, prompting the target to kill them, and then post the footage online to create public opinion, making everyone view the target as a murderer.
At that point, both humans and Vampires would become the target's enemies.
A while ago, Blade had fallen into a similar trap while eliminating a Vampire faction. The edited video went viral online, portraying him as a thug who attacked civilians without cause, and he was nearly doxxed by netizens.
Fortunately, S.H.I.E.L.D. intervened in time, not wanting the existence of Vampires to be exposed to the public, and helped him erase all traces, saving Blade from continued cyberbullying and police pursuit.
The Daywalker, who struck fear into all Vampires, was nearly 'IRL'd' by netizens.
Morality is truly declining!
Darian couldn't help but sigh, these ancient Vampires entrenched in the upper echelons of power were indeed much more sophisticated and insidious than thugs like Frost, who only knew how to fight and kill.
The blood factory was hidden in the basement of this bar, accessible only through a specific passage.
Darian and Blade did not act immediately. The bar was full of unsuspecting ordinary people, and rash action would only alert the enemy. They ordered two drinks at the bar counter, using the opportunity to observe the environment and search for the entrance to the basement.
Just as they located the passage and prepared to move, a bartender blocked their way.
"Gentlemen, you haven't paid for your drinks yet."
"Ask my friend for it."
Darian waved his hand casually and continued walking toward the passage without stopping.
The bartender's gaze immediately shifted to Blade.
Blade's mouth twitched slightly. He reluctantly pulled out his wallet: "How much?"
"Two thousand U.S. dollars."
"Wait, hold on. You said how much? Two drinks cost two thousand U.S. dollars!?"
Blade pulled down his sunglasses and stared incredulously at the bartender.
Blade: Σ ( ☉ д ⊙ ) — ■ - ■
The bartender maintained a professional smile: "Sir, we are an internet-famous bar. This price is very reasonable."
Blade: "..."
Those Vampires are so in tune with current trends that they even run an internet-famous bar?
Recalling the previous 'crash-for-cash' incident, Blade couldn't explode right there. He could only grit his teeth, pull the cash from his wallet, and slam it onto the bar counter.
The people running this bar really are a bunch of Vampires!
Literally!